"In America, dogs are your friends"

Chào quý vị,

Tôi nói và viết tiếng Việt...một chút thôi. Tôi đã đến Việt Nam khoảng một tháng rồi!

Well, I have only one more Vietnamese class left and less than one week to go before I head out to the city of Hue in Central Vietnam. I will still spend a week in Hanoi before I head back to the United States, so its not goodbye yet! It has been wonderful getting to know people and places in this city. Last night I went to the English class for the last time (no singing since this was a writing lesson), and some of the students and I planned a trip to Uncle Ho's mausoleum over a few glasses of cane juice. The mausoleum complex of Ho Chi Minh (which includes the grave, a museum, and his traditional-style stilt house) is probably the most important site in Hanoi for Vietnamese people. We'll hopefully go early next week!

I also spent a little time trying to explain why I have a pet cat, but that was a conversation on slippery ground since dogs and cats are seen as food here. Will I try thịt cho (dog)? Probably not...I hope that doesn't make me a bad anthropologist! I'll go for the crickets anyday.

I decided to go super luxurious-style and take the sleeper bus (rather than the sitting bus) for the 13 hour overnight trip to Hue. The seats acutally lay out flat like the first class seats on an international flight! (woah.) I'm sure the extra seven bucks will pay off in the end.

This past week has been foreigner-arama week. I've met so many other travellers with varied and interesting stories. There are expats living here for many years, solo tourists, teachers, exchange students, business people...it goes on and on. Of cours, there are the incredibly embarassing tourists out there too! How could grown men be totally wasted, angry, and yelling in the middle of the day in downtown Hanoi? Luckily those-types are relatively few and far between. Amazingly, I met some others of my own kind today: American PhD students. One was even from Emory! They were actually the first and only Americans that I have run into (besides Rich and Bert of course). It was pretty refreshing to meet people who know where I'm coming from.

some things I've noticed

Between traveler's sickness, bia hoi outings, and city wandering, its been a busy week! Last Monday night I went to Ngat's English class again. At one point during the class, I found myself being convinced by all fourty students and the teacher to lead the class in their weekly song - "Sealed with a Kiss" this week. Since that somewhat embarrassing moment, I've realized that there is a lot more random singing around here than in the United States. Sing when you take out the garbage, sing when you sweep the floor, sing in general, random, public places!


My Vietnamese teacher claims that there is a law prohibiting horn honking between 10pm and 5am. I register no difference when 10pm rolls around. But, I guess all that singing helps to balance out the motorbike horns.


Also, I've learned that it is never too early (in a social acceptance kind of way) to drink beer or eat ice cream. Since it's 1000 degrees by 6am, I'll take ice cream at all hours! In the past few days, whenever I've ordered things like food, beer, or ice cream, people have started understanding me (without laughing or correcting too much). In fact, I've even had some two or three sentence-long conversations. Those Vietnamese lessons must be doing something!

brain to mouth coordination

Let me begin by saying that Vietnamese is a challenging language to say the least. I had my first lesson yesterday, a good hour and a half one-on-one, and I barely got through the six tones and the alphabet. To my credit however, there are three different types of "a's", three "o's" and two "u's" to deal with. Luckily, my teacher is patient and good natured, and I have a very easy time laughing at myself! What have I gotten myself into anyway?

This week was filled with getting my feet on the ground in Hanoi, setting up language lessons, and meeting with people about my dissertation research. So, after all that, I was very happy to spend the day today taking in some of the sites of this wonderful city. In the morning I went with some of my Vietnamese friends to the museum of ethnology. This museum celebrates Vietnam's incredible ethnic diveristy - 54 distinct ethnic groups. After the museum, they took me to a delicious traditional Vietnamese lunch where I impressed them all with my super amazing chopstick skills (insert here my sarcasm and their ever-present alarm at my being left-handed).

Now listen up you pottery-loving craftoids! After lunch my friend Da took me to Bat Trang, ceramic village. This place is seriously FILLED with ceramics of all kinds. Just 10km outside of Hanoi, this village was founded in the same year as the thriving capital (1o10 AD). Pottery studios have been here forever and they now export their goods all over the world, though mostly to France. It was awesome. Also, I got the chance to make a (crappy) pot on a wheel for the first time!

Travelling alone has been awkward and awesome and always interesting. Hanoi is filled with people who are interested in what that lonely foreign girl is up to. Some want me to buy something, some want a chance to practice their english, and some, like my friends from the university, are genuinely interested in helping out a stranger in their city while making a friend along the way.

Somehow it was hotter today than yesterday. So, since the AC in my room started working last night, I might make it out alive after all!

the bus "stops" here

Well, I've been in Hanoi for about a 5 days, and things are starting to come together! I'm staying at a nice guesthouse where I think I'll park myself for the whole month of June. I'm rocking Vietnam solo this time, but I think it'll be just fine.

For those who are just basically wondering what I am up to, here is the general plan for my time in Vietnam:
I plan to be in Hanoi for the month of June, taking Vietnamese classes and getting the feel of living in Vietnam.
Also, I will be meeting with people at the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (CRES) at the National University here in Hanoi. Some of the reserchers at CRES are working on the Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative (BCI). I am hoping to study landscape history in the corridor when I come back to do my dissertation fieldwork in a few years.
In July, until I leave on the 17th, I will visit the BCI pilot site ouside of Hue.


When I got here last Saturday, feeling completly steamrolled of course, I immediately got to work wandering around and eating lots of food. And now, 5 nights, three guesthouses, and countless Bahn Bao later, I've found my neighborhood of choice and a few friends.

One of the people who works at my guesthouse is a student and the National University. Her name is Ngat, and we've definitely hit it off. I went with her to one of he english classes a few days ago and met some of her classmates. They were all so welcoming! The teacher had me sit in the front of the class and answer their various questions for the first half hour ('where are you from, why are you in Vietnam, do you have a boyfriend'...et cetera)...then I helped them with pronunciation of various animals for the rest of class. It was awesome! Some of us are going to go together to the museum of Ethnology this Saturday!

Hanoi is amazing. Everytyhing is vibrant and intense. For example, public buses almost never stop. People literally have to run and jump onto a moving vehicle! I have done this...it is crazy. But all the craziness seems to be in the packaging. Conversations and the walking pace of the city has made me slow down and look around with greater care. Its actually quite meditative.

Today I'll be heading over to CRES to meet with some of the reserchers there and hopfully learning more about the BCI! Also, I'm planning to stat my language classes tomorrow...hopfully that all works out.

Wow, that is enough for one posting.
-Annie